1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric motorcycle and, more specifically, to an electric motorcycle configured to travel by driving a motor with power supplied from a battery.
2. Description of Related Art
In the related art, the electric motorcycle including a motor-integrated power unit mounted on a vehicle body frame, and configured to travel by transmitting a rotary drive force of the motor to a drive wheel is known.
For example, in Japanese Patent No. 2988993 an electric motorcycle including a rear wheel as a drive wheel is mounted at a rear end of a swing arm axially supported by the vehicle body frame so as to be swingable, and is configured to transmit a rotary drive force of a motor in a power unit to the rear wheel via a chain-drive mechanism. Stored in the interior of the power unit are the motor as a power source, a continuously variable transmission having a V-belt entrained about a drive pulley and a driven pulley, and a centrifugal clutch configured to be switched to a connected state when the revolving speed of the motor exceeds a predetermined rotation.
The power unit described in Japanese Patent No. 2988993 has a structure in which the motor is disposed at a coaxial position with the drive pulley, and the centrifugal clutch is disposed at a coaxial position with the driven pulley. In this structure, the motor and the centrifugal clutch are disposed in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle, and hence the dimension of the power unit in the vehicle width direction is reduced. However, since the motor and the centrifugal clutch are arranged in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle, there arises a problem that the length in the fore-and-aft direction tends to increase.